Former chief financial officer of Tommy Hilfiger Handbags and Small Leather Goods Inc., a licensee of the Tommy Hilfiger Group, has been sentenced

Former chief financial officer of Tommy Hilfiger Handbags and Small Leather Goods Inc., a licensee of the Tommy Hilfiger Group, has been sentenced to 66 months in prison on mail fraud and wire fraud charges to which he pleaded guilty on Sept. 15.
The charges arose out of Martin S. Bodner’s theft, between about the middle of 2000 and the end of December 2007, of over $19,090,000 from his employer. Prosecutors said Bodner, 60, of Manhattan, began working at THHB in Manhattan in March 2000, eventually becoming the company’s CFO. Beginning in about the middle of that year, Bodner began stealing money from his employer by secretly increasing the amount of money that he was to be paid in salary and bonus; arranging to be reimbursed by THHB for phony expenses he purportedly had incurred in the course of his employment; adding one of his sons, who did not work for THHB during the years 2004 and 2005, to the company’s payroll and arranging for his son to be paid approximately $225,500 during those years. He also caused hundreds of checks to be issued to various payees for the purpose of paying off Bodner’s personal credit card bills, purchasing a luxury automobile for himself, paid for insurance for a home, apartments, and automobiles owned by Bodner, and paid for decorating services. Bodner also used stolen money in, among other ways, to purchase, decorate, and furnish three Manhattan apartments, two of which were combined into a larger apartment; purchase a home in Sands Point that he was in the process of rebuilding when his fraud was discovered; and purchase luxury cars, including two Jaguars and two Audis. In addition to the prison term, Bodner was sentenced to three years of supervised release, and ordered to pay a fine of $12,500 and $17,347,240.21 in restitution. In connection with his agreement to plead guilty, Bodner agreed to forfeit a home in Sands Point, a Manhattan apartment, cars, and various other property.